Mediate Michigan

Franco Margarita wants his six-year-old son to play outdoor sports. His ex-wife, he says, would rather let their boy play on the Wii.

While they were still married, Mr. Margarita urged his wife to be firm when their son threw tantrums or refused to go to sleep. The couple read parenting books and talked about discipline strategies, says Mr. Margarita, an IT professional in Toronto who requested a pseudonym to protect his son’s privacy.

His wife was a softie, he says. “She always found an excuse for why she wouldn’t follow through.”

Arguments over their son’s care, along with other marital issues, escalated until the couple separated when the boy was almost 4. As parents, he says, “we see things in very different ways.”

Disagreements about money, sex, children and housework have long been chafing points in modern marriages. But now that parenting has become a mass obsession, clashes over how to raise kids are enough to tip shaky relationships over the edge, family therapists say.

via Disagreements over childrearing are growing cause of divorce – The Globe and Mail.